Deconstructing and Reconstructing Social Innovation and Sustainability, with Faculty Member Sarah Bobrow-Williams. What do we – members of the SIS Program – mean when we say Social Innovation and Sustainability? Some of us may use similar definitions. Others may find that existing and/or commonly used narratives do not fit or reflect the work they are doing or wish to do. This workshop will present varied definitions and derivations of Social Innovation and Sustainability (theory and practice) and engage your input for thoughtful and thought provoking discussion. An intended outcome of the workshop is to identify varied dimensions and applications of Social Innovation and/or Sustainability theory and practice and to identify opportunities for students to share in writing throughout the semester, how they are applying particular dimensions to their work or how the theory is being used and applied in the field. For example, a student might write a brief description of how they are using design innovation in their work, or, how IDEO is promoting the use of design innovation in civic engagement arenas. These summaries could be shared through Worlds of Change or in other college publications and/or print media.

Disrupting Status, Rank and Hierarchy through Improvisation and the Body (Parts I & II), with Faculty Members Karen Campbell and Katt Lissard. In Paul Klee’s sketch, Two Men Meet, Each Assuming the Other to Be of Higher Rank, the image is of two naked men, each attempting to bow as close to the ground as possible, since neither is clear on the position the other might occupy in society’s rigid hierarchy. This graphic critique, along with much of Klee’s work, was eventually labeled “degenerate” by the ascendant Nazi regime and confiscated. Klee’s sketch is a visual jumping off point for this workshop’s embodied, improvisational exploration of status, rank and hierarchy in the present moment of societal reckoning and potential peril. Our three-dimensional, corporeal inquiry asks: Is it possible to “look at” the deep, complex issues of racism, white privilege, gender spectrum antipathies, misogyny, immigration and class boundaries using theatre but no (or few) words? In this two-part workshop, we’ll explore our own impulses, reactions and assumptions without relying on language to explain, argue or justify. Instead, we’ll see what we discover through the Image Theatre work of Augusto Boal, the improvisational Status Games of Keith Johnstone, Anne Bogart and Tina Landau’s Viewpoints (a composition technique), along with the collaborative theatre-making processes Karen has been using in Japan and Katt has been using in Lesotho, Africa. In the first section, we’ll create a “physical vocabulary” together – guaranteed to be fun, expressive, inspiring and (hopefully) liberating! In the second, we’ll put that “vocabulary” to use as we attempt to break down our own structures, barriers and biases. EVERYONE is welcome! No theatre experience necessary.

Embodied Poetics of the Heart, with Returning Students Julia Fenton and Stefania Patinella and Faculty Member Sarah Van Hoy. This workshop will be a celebratory exploration of the heart. We’ll be growing our relationship to the heart by connecting stanzas of meaning: heart medicines, heart metaphors, heart poetry as diagnosis. We’ll meet: plants for when the heart is being torn to shreds, plants for when the heart is overflowing with giddy butterflies, plants for a heart that has been swallowed by a black hole and plants that make your heart sing. Into this we will weave some of biomedical information on the heart’s nervous system, research linking emotional distress and heart disease, electromagnetic heart-field communication, and gleanings from the Chinese classics.

The Faith Cure: Can the Mind Heal the Body? with Faculty Member Francis X. Charet. There is a growing amount of interest in the mind/body connection and the impact that various forms of mental effort have in influencing certain physiological processes. What evidence is there of such an influence and what might this mean for a revisioning of human health, treatment, and well being?

Language of Art to Love, Witness, Resist, Transform, with Faculty Member Lori Ayela Wynters and Returning Student Kelly McDowell. This workshop will explore a broad range of art making as a vehicle for resistance, truth-telling, empowerment, healing, re-calibration and transformation. We’ll look at interdisciplinary art installations, performances, engagements, including but not limited to visual, dance, song/music, writing, storytelling, and take time throughout the residency to explore art practices for navigating this upcoming time.

Writing and Refuge in a Time of Disruption, with faculty member Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg and IMA-TLA returning students Shomriel Sherman, Tracy Murphy and Summer Graef. Coming together to write, to find and strengthen our individual and collective voices in a time when so many social and eco-communities are threatened, can help us co- create a refuge. There we can replenish our inner well and recommit ourselves to our work, art, and community. In this experiential workshop, we’ll write our ways toward shelter from the storms of our time to reconnect with what we love, what we grieve, and how we can make and hold space for one another to see more clearly our deepest callings and most effective actions in this time. We’ll also share individual approaches, considerations, resources, and questions. Most of all, we’ll use this workshop time to immerse ourselves in the refuge we write and create together.

Wings in the Air, Feet on the Ground: How Complicating the Climate Change Narrative can Disrupt Denial and Despair, with faculty member James Sparrell and SIS-TLA returning student Shawn Crawford. Join Jim and Shawn for a discussion exploring the complexity of climate change. Our goal in the workshop is to move beyond generalization (e.g. belief vs. unbelief, or reviewing the carbon cycle) to consider specific and local effects of a changing climate. Jim will discuss scientific research related to avian ecology in coastal marshes and Hawaii, while Shawn will discuss his local water resources in northern Utah from the perspective of a naturalist interested in policy advocacy. We will consider our experience of the natural world in the context of relational knowing.

Engaged Learning, Research & Practice for a Changing World

This blog is a project of Goddard College's Individualized MA, SIS and HAS programs, featuring the work, research, studies and arts of students, faculty and alumni as they create worlds of change in their communities and beyond.

Read Our Book: Free Download of Teaching Transformation

Teaching Transformation: Progressive Education in Action edited by Lise Weil and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg with an introduction by Elizabeth K. Minnich, is now available! Featuring over 30 contributors, speaks directly to what faculty member and contributor Sarah Van Hoy calls "undiagnosed visionaries" who find their way to enacting their visions and callings through such an educational experience. Minnich writes of the book, "It is my profound conviction, an increasingly urgent one, that this book -- a volume on teaching by committed, experienced teacher-learners reflecting in depth about their art, their calling, and why it matters -- ought to be read and talked about as widely as possible." Learn more about the book here and how to download it for free or buy a copy.